The seven-time world world champion never appeared that quick over one lap all day as he🐟 ended up 0.786s off the pace in FP1 and lagged behind his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in FP2. 

Hamilton finished fourth in both sessions at Losail and ended the day some 0.422s behind pacesetter Bottas☂ in the more representative second practice which took place under the lights.&nb🤡sp;

Aft☂er the conclusion of FP2, Hamilton appeared somewhat downbeat as he struggled to exp🌠lain his pace deficit. 

“I don’t even kno﷽w how big the gap is but I’🐭m off, so I’m definitely not close,” Hamilton said. 

“At the moment, I’m a little bit 𝓰slow, so need to figure that ou🃏t tonight.” 

Hamilton suffered some minor front wing damage during FP1 after running wide at Turn 15, but the Briton said he is enjoying the challenge of getting to grips with a new circuit.&nb🧸sp;

“Driving wise its okay, it’sꩲ all high-speed corners so it’s definitely physical,” he explained. 

“But the track’s quite nice, no real issues. There’s a lꦯittle bit of damage just from riding kerbs but nothing too serious obviously.” 

In contrast, Bottas enjoyed a stronger first day ♛of running in Qatar and dominated FP2, finishing over t🌌wo-tenths clear of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly during the soft tyre qualifying simulation runs. 

The Finn was happ🔯y with his set-up direction and believes he is already close to hitting the “sweet spot” with his W12. 

“Today started nicely with the set-ups, so the balance 🐟was already pretty goo♐d in the first runs, only minor tweaks to be done for FP2 - so I would say that’s an ideal way to start a weekend on a new track,” Bottas said. 

“I 🦩think the team did a really good job onꦍ the estimation of the set-up and it’s not far off the sweet spot. 

“Obviously there’s always work to do, even driving wise, in two sessions you ca𓆏nnot find all the speed that is available, so for sure we’ll keep on working.”